Rafael Quintero
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Rafael "Chi Chi" Quintero (September 16, 1940 - October 1, 2006) was a CIA operative
Rafael Quintero Ibaria, known as "Chi Chi" was born in Camagüey province of Cuba and died in Baltimore, Maryland. He joined the resistance movement to Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista when a young student. A few days prior to the Fidel Castro revolution he joined Fidel's group in the Sierra Maestra. After becoming dissatisfied with the Castro regime he joined Manuel Artime against Castro. Artime's group was supported by Frank Sturgis and the CIA as related by Fabian Escalante in CIA Covert Operations: 1959 - 1962. Sturgis flew a CIA plane over Havana dropping thousands of pamphlets urging the Cuban people to overthrow the Castro regime in October 21, 1959 as part of Artime's operations. Artime left Cuba with a hundred thousand pesos when nothing happened. Quintero moved to the United States the next month.
The Movement for the Recovery of the Revolution (MRR Party) was created by Manuel Artime, Tony Varona, Aureliano Arango, Jose Cardona and Quintero. About the same time Quintero became a member of Operation 40 along with other anti-Castro Cubans. In 1961 Quintero secretly re-entered Cuba and was arrested just prior to the Bay of Pigs invasion, was released and returned to the U.S. Quintero served as deputy leader of MMR under Artime in 1962. Artime got money from the CIA through Theodore Shackley in 1963. Artime, Quintero and Felix Rodriguez moved to Nicaragua creating an army of 300 men and obtained weapons, supplies and boats to invade Cuba.
